Red Orchestra Franchise Pack

In my previous WWAUT post I mentioned that we are working on a number of items as we push towards our next major Red Orchestra 2 update. Today I want to focus on another upcoming item sure to please both fans of Red Orchestra 2 and Killing Floor.

As you probably know, we here at Tripwire are big fans of modding (many of us having gotten our start in the Make Something Unreal contest), and support it through the release of our SDK's, contests to promote content creation and more. The latest being the <a href="http://www.heroesofstalingrad.com/counterattack-map-making-competition/">Counterattack Mapping Contest</a> for Red Orchestra 2 with thousands of dollars up for grabs! With phase 1 done and judging getting underway, the custom mappers are already hard at work for their phase 2 entries.

Above you will find the two trailers shown to the press at Gamescom of the upcoming expansion for Red Orchestra 2: Rising Storm. Rising Storm takes players into the islands and jungles of the Pacific and introduces new weapons, and features as well as the Japanese and American factions. Stay tuned for more Rising Storm news in the future!

Tripwire would also like to congratulate the custom level designers who submitted their maps for Phase 1 of the Counterattack mapping contest. All of the entries can be found <a href="http://forums.tripwireinteractive.com/forumdisplay.php?f=135">here in the forums.</a> Contact your favorite server admins and get them to run your favorites (many already are)!

Last but not least, for those who have the Red Orchestra 2 Beta (the stand alone beta) installed, the Multiplayer Campain server will go up for its first test later today (in aprox 4 hours). We look forward to seeing you on the battlefield.

Welcome back to the latest edition of the What We Are Up To post. For those just joining us, these are designed to tell you the community what is going on behind the closed doors here at Tripwire. Today is the first in a series that will be touching on our immediate and long term plans for RO 2. This post will focus on the map, multiplayer campaign and player requested refinements.

As some of the players have noticed, like before the Game Of The Year update, the RO 2 beta (the stand alone beta, NOT the opt in beta) has been updated. This has brought the beta to the same version as the live game. As the weeks and months go on we will be continuing to introduce things to the beta for player feedback before it all eventually ends up in the next RO 2 patch.

The first change, which has already been introduced in the beta, has been to turn on Multiplayer Campaign. Stay tuned to the RO 2 beta forum in the future as we schedule tests to gather feedback from players and identify what needs work.

Coming shortly we will have player requested refinements entering the beta as well. Increased stamina capacity in classic, a change to player movement while players are firing machine guns, as well as some tweaks to countdown and UI functionality to help players understand what is expected of them and what is happening during the game.

Also on the way will be our next official map. While we aren't ready to give out many details just yet (including the name), what we do want to do is let players know what our goal is with this map. It has been designed to bring back one of the combined arms style of experiences from RO 1 that has not been represented in an official map so far. Multiple tanks on both sides engaging each other over large tracks of land while infantry move up and capture the objectives. If the tanks try and get up close and personal in the objectives without friendly infantry support they will soon find themselves dodging infantry exposing themselves only long enough to damage or destroy the tank. We think it will be an great addition to to the gameplay of RO 2.

We'll be looking for feedback from the community on all these things and more as the beta advances. In the coming days I'll also be touching on major system changes, the upcoming Rising Storm and more. Speaking of Rising Storm, some of the Tripwire team is on the ground in Germany at Gamescom with Tony from Rising Storm, so keep your eyes out for new information and media!

There is a patch coming today for RO 2. It will be a large download, but that is because we're converting our files over into something that will work much more efficiently with Steam's new content system. Future downloads will much smaller allowing us to update the game more often. Other changes include:

<b>Maps</b><ul><li>Mamayev</li><ul><li>Balanced reinforcement count in Allies favor</li><li>Added additional cover</li><li>Added ammo depot to Axis staging area</li></ul><li>Barracks</li><ul><li>Improved cover between NCO barracks and Admin</li><li>Modified area that could be used to fire on a spawn</li></ul><li>Pavlovs House</li><ul><li>Moved ladder in Zabs house to a better location</li><li>Modified initial Allied spawn protection</li><li>Added new routers to help the Allies leave their spawns without getting killed as easily</li><li>Modified several spots in Zabs House that could be used by the Axis to overlook the Allied spawn exit</li><li>Modified Allied spawning location when the Axis are pushing the final Allied objective</li><li>Added additional cover to some areas of the map</li><li>Blocked off tank access to the yellow building area behind Zabs House</li></ul><li>Red October Factory</li><ul><li>Rebalanced reinforcement count</li><li>Added additional map time</li><li>Decreased artillery use timer</li><li>Removed 2nd Axis tank</li><li>Modified number of window firing points for Axis on the 1st obj</li><li>Modified initial Russian spawn protection</li><li>Added more cover to the 1st and 2nd objective areas</li></ul><li>Station</li><ul><li>Added more cover to the initial Axis approach</li><li>Modified 1st Axis spawns </li></ul><li>Spartanovka</li><ul><li>Modified capzones for Housing Block 1 & 2 </li></ul><li>Grain Elevator</li><ul><li>Added several obstructions to break up line of sight</li><li>Increased capture time on last objective</li><li>Increased duration before allies lose all of their reinforcements</li><li>Fixed map boundary times being 1 second</li></ul><li>Commissars House</li><ul><li>Added new cover from first spawns</li><li>Added cover to road ahead of Commissars North Hall</li><li>Increased size of snow mounds around Commissars House</li><li>Modified map boundaries</li><li>Modified objective setup</li><li>Modified spawn locations and handling </li></ul><li>Training</li><ul><li>Fixed ref pose bots in squad leader training </li><li>Fixed minor lighting issues across all maps</li></ul></ul>

Gameplay<ul><li>Fixed bullet impact effects not being visible when on a fixed MG</li><li>Fixed weapons getting lowered while aiming left from prone</li><li>Increased spawn protection time to 20 seconds if standing in the area when it’s activated</li><li>Correct initial ammo count for P38 and TT33 (added one)</li></ul>

UI<ul><li>Fixed the scroll bar on the server browser player list. It should no longer continue to snap to the top.</li><li>Fixed voted maps sometimes disappearing from the right-hand map voting box</li><li>Fixed flickering text on the loading screen when downloading a custom map</li><li>Fixed “FT1, FT2, FT3” etc text stuck on screen for squad leaders and commanders</li><li>Fixed Marskman roles missing from some maps in action mode. Squad view shifting down as roles open up eventually making roles un-selectable.</li></ul>

Webadmin<ul><li>The 'Mutate' command can now be used from the management console</li></ul>

<b>* Attention Modders *</b>We found that most custom maps will need to be republished if you haven't already done so using the opt-in beta. Mutators are generally still compatable, but we recommend all modders briefly test their content. Continue checking the modding forum for more info.

Fans can now find RO 2 75% off for the next 35 hours. If you have been on the fence or you want to introduce your friends, there is no better time! We have great plans for the future of RO 2, so make sure you and your friends don't miss out!

Speaking of the upcoming RO 2 patch, one of the least known features of the GOTY update for RO 2 was the implementation of the Steam stats tracking system. This is the same system used in games such as TF 2 to all the developers to find out how players are playing the game. Our goal with the system was to help us track map balance, and make changes to the maps based on that feedback, and I am happy to say that the first map updates based on the results of the feedback is ready with the updated maps being made available in the next RO 2 patch. Moving forward we can continue to use the system to gather feedback and make tweaks as needed based on how the community as a whole is playing the game!

We’ve also been working on several bug fixes, gameplay tweaks, and several client crashes. One of these that players will see shortly in the upcoming patch is a change to the spawn protection system. Defenders who are in a “spawn protection” area when it is activated will now have more time (twenty seconds) to pull back. In the future we will also be bringing news of our next planned content update and our plans for the game moving forward. As details are worked out we will start to present them to the players.

I’ve thrown the word upcoming patch around several times in this update. The bad news is that I do not have a patch release date to give you yet, the good news is that it will be within the month (if all goes well). Near the release of the patch we will also be posting the first of a series of dev blogs which goes over what a developer has been working on and the details behind it.

Launching in the near future, <a href="http://www.twiladder.com/">TWI Ladder</a> will be the focal point for clan and competitive gaming for Tripwire Interactive's games. We would love your feedback on what you would like to see from the site and we're also looking for volunteers for many positions including admins and more.

With the success of the recent free weekend on Steam and lots of new players enjoying the Red Orchestra 2 Game of the Year Edition, we've decided to do a couple of things to make it even easier to get into the game. First, we have decided to cut the price in half to $19.99 (14.99 GBP/17.99 EUR/299 RUB) for the game. Second, we're giving everyone that owns Red Orchestra 2 a guest pass that they can hand off to a friend for them to check out the game free of charge.

This is the game that won PC Gamer's "Multiplayer FPS of the Year" and has recently been updated with new game modes, a new map, a wide range of gameplay refinements and performance improvements - all for free to everyone who owns the game. Tripwire Interactive is committed to supporting our games with free additional content for many years after initial release and Red Orchestra 2 is no exception to that rule! There is more content already in the works for the game, as well as a new add-on for the game: Rising Storm, that will bring the Pacific Theater alive for Red Orchestra 2 players.